| Subprograma
Media Acción Tipo de actividad Paises participantes FR,NL
Fechas de inicio y fin Estado del proyecto finalized Subvención
Coordinador PUMPERNICKEL FILMS FR
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Winnie Mandela is one of the most misunderstood and intriguingly powerful contemporary female political figures. Her story, largely secret until now, is inextricably linked with the fate of her nation and that of her husband, the global icon, Nelson Mandela. Respecting her period of mourning after he died in December 2013, we approached her, aware that an important film required to be made, far from the mythologizing that so characterised the past 21 years of the post-apartheid South Africa.
It required careful handling, as the political stakes are still high. In the balance also, is Winnie’s age- at 78 her secrets could go with her, to the grave. We are intrigued by the fact that she is the woman behind Mandela’s rise to power and his release from life imprisonment and still holds the key to political control in the black townships. Also, that she has made and posed a threat to South Africa’s first three democratic Presidents and had her own aspirations to run the country quashed by secret forces beyond her control. A supremely controversial character, Winnie has until now abrogated her responsibility to clear her name internationally, always claiming mysteriously “the truth will out”. Now, prompted partly by recent revelations by Niel Barnard, the head of BOSS (apartheid secret service), on the way in which a deal was made to neutralise her during negotiations for Mandela’s release, she is prepared to open up to us for the very first time. In a series of unprecedented interviews, as Winnie struggles to control her legacy, she will, step by step, be brought to account. She guides us to benign key witnesses to her story, while we also seek those who are hostile to her, to trace Winnie’s personal life and political development through the brutal years of apartheid to “the promised land”. Tracing an imbricated relationship between husband and wife over a lifetime of separation, we will pose the question: what will be that passionate, iconic couple’s legacy? |